


Stronger Together

by Marasa



Category: Deadly Class (Comics), Deadly Class (TV)
Genre: Anxiety, Crying, Cuddling, Depression, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, F/M, Fluff, Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Protectiveness, a little group therapy never hurts, soft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-02
Updated: 2019-03-08
Packaged: 2019-11-08 05:54:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,390
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17975696
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Marasa/pseuds/Marasa
Summary: After the Vegas trip, Marcus and the gang suffer separately in silence. But maybe it’s better to come together and talk about it.Basically some much needed group therapy post-Vegas.





	1. Chapter 1

It’s been two whole weeks since they got back from Vegas. 

Marcus doesn’t realize it at first; the days have been blurring into one another. 

He doesn’t think he’s doing well. He feels sick whenever he thinks about what happened.

He doesn’t sleep well, wakes too early, sits through class doing the bare minimum and not talking to anyone, only to come directly back to his room and lay in bed.

Shabnam learns to leave him alone. 

At first he tries to make jokes about Marcus being lazy but the humor dies when Marcus refuses to rise from bed to eat, drink or shower.

It’s Saturday evening and Marcus has yet to get up since Friday afternoon. He’s just blinked awake after another long nap but stays staring at the ceiling and listening to whatever shit Shabnam is quietly playing on his radio. 

There’s the distant sound of wheels against tile out in the hall. Marcus’ fingers twitch and he turns his head at the familiar sound. 

There’s a knock at the door. 

“Mail’s here!”

Marcus watches from bed as Shabnam hurries over and opens the door. Revealed is a familiar punk standing there and smiling in his usual mischievous way, and something sad twists in Marcus’ chest because it feels like forever since he’s seen him and he hates that he’s been unable to be a good friend lately.

“I’ve got two letters from Mummy and Daddy for Shabnam and, oh? What’s this? A letter for Marcus?”

Shabnam whips his head over to Marcus in unparalleled enthusiasm.

“Marcus, you actually got something! From a pretty lady, maybe?”

Marcus pulls the comforter up to his nose. 

“Do you expect me to come to you or are you gonna get up?” Lex snaps. 

Marcus blinks slowly. Anxiety starts to build within him at the thought of being engaged in conversation but there’s another part of him that sorely misses his friend.

His legs slide off the side of the bed. Marcus sits up, his back cracking and his joints popping. Shabnam looks a little surprised when Marcus stands and shuffles slowly to the door.

“Oh, hey, Lex?” Shabnam says as he turns back to him, Marcus’ latest development already old news to his roommate. “I’ve been waiting on a package for the past week-“

“I don’t handle packages.” Lex looks him up and down. “Not yours, anyway.”

He waves for him to get out of the way. Marcus takes his spot at the door. Lex hands over a red envelope. 

Marcus leans against the doorframe as he opens it.

_ Meet at my dorm room at 11 tonight. _

_ We all need to talk. _

_ -Billy _

“They’re not doing well,” Lex says quietly. “At all. And when they’re not doing well, then it’s my issue too.”

“You weren’t there,” Marcus says as he folds the paper back up. 

“And I should have been. I love Vegas.”

Marcus actually laughs. It sounds more like he’s clearing his throat, but it’s a laugh nonetheless. 

“I should’ve been there,” Lex repeats, but this time there’s a serious edge to his voice. “It would’ve been different. Because I would’ve protected you lot. You wouldn’t be in this mess.”

“Don’t flatter yourself.”

“Just...come ‘round tonight. They- We need to sort shit out.”

That serious look in his eyes, his accent, his chipped nail polish; Marcus considers the familiarity of it all and murmurs quietly just for him to hear, “I missed you.”

Lex blinks. His expression seems to soften at the croaked confession, and something warms within Marcus gentlywhen he realizes that Lex is only ever like this with him.

In school, it’s different for all of them. They all hide behind their own reputations and their own masks of indifference. No one would know how close they were outside of it all, what they had told each other, what they had done with each other. 

Marcus had never considered himself a clingy person before coming to King’s but after so long with no one, he found himself direly starved for touch and affection. 

He was always touching them, whether it be brushing his arm with theirs as they walked down the hall, playing with their fingers when he was bored during study hall or cuddling them in the privacy of their room. 

The alienation, the separation; it would melt from him as soon as he felt them. And surprisingly, his friends didn’t seem to mind.

Lex was curt and stand-offish in school, but Marcus could always see through him and see the lonely, fearful boy trying to seem tough in front of his peers. 

When it’s just them, the Rats on the roof with no one else, Lex allows his guard to drop. 

He’s quieter. He’s gentler. He’s real.

He laughs and hums softly and wraps an arm around them when they lean into his side, and during times like that, it’s so brutally clear how much they all want love and safety and how they only ever find it with each other. 

Marcus has emotionally been drifting astray for the past couple of weeks.

Without warning, Marcus leans forward onto Lex, his forehead against his collarbone, their chests together. Marcus’ arms dangle pathetically at his sides even though all he wants to do is cling to the other boy. 

Lex immediately slides his hands up Marcus’ arms with the quietest murmur of, “ _ Oh, love.”  _

And Marcus knows he must look a mess, what with his greasy hair and grungy pajamas and there’s a pimple on the side of his face from not taking a shower in a while. But Lex doesn’t reject him. Instead he holds him for a few moments, fingers on the back of his neck and an arm around his waist.

“I’ll see you tonight,” Lex says as he helps Marcus stand up straight again. “And shower before you come.”

Marcus nods and Lex is back on his skateboard, speeding down the hall with his mailbag over his shoulder. 

“So who’s the letter from?” Shabnam asks as he looks up from his letters from home, thankfully unaware of the previous display of affection. “Someone special?”

And Marcus nods because yeah, it really is.  


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spanish translations at the bottom of the page

Marcus knocks on Billy’s door at 11:03.

The three minutes after the hour were spent hesitating in the hallway. 

It’s just that he feels like he hasn’t seen them in forever. They haven’t been saying hi to each other in the halls, some of them even changing up their usual routes around school so they don’t see each other. The lunch table is struck with inconsistency when Marcus decides to show up at all. 

He’d think it was for their safety but it doesn’t feel like it. 

The anxious part of him wants to turn around and go back to his room to avoid the situation altogether but he knows this needs to be done, the whole talking thing.

“It’s Marcus,” he says against the wood when Billy asks who it is.

“Yeah, come in.”

Marcus takes a deep breath. He steps inside. 

Here they are, all together again.

Last time they were together, they were high out of their minds. Now they’re lower than they’ve probably been since childhood. 

Maria, Saya and Billy sit on the bed. Willie sits back in the desk chair. Lex sits on the desktop. 

They’re all in their pajamas, and they don’t look like killers but simply look tired.

Marcus nods to them, the quiet a little intimidating. All eyes are on him as he crosses the room and finds a place on the bed on the other side of Billy. 

Lex hands him a bottle of soda and a bag of chips. Marcus guesses he wasn’t being slick about the fact he hadn’t ingested anything for more than forty-eight hours.

The air is tense. Marcus attempts to chew as quietly as possible. 

When he looks around the room, Marcus realizes they’re all wearing the same expression: guilt. 

It’s like they’re all waiting to be yelled at, like they’ve all done something that would warrant their total abandonment at the hands of their closest friends.

Marcus finds it hard to swallow because there’s a sudden knot in his throat at seeing his friends like this. 

Billy picks at a loose string on his pajama pants. He clears his throat. They all look at him. 

“I needed to talk to all of you,” Billy begins with his eyes still trained on his lap and Marcus hasn’t heard his voice in so long that he’s hanging onto every word. “I’ve felt like shit since Vegas because I know this was my fault. And I want to apologize to all of you.” His bottom lip quivers. “I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry that I drug you into this. I didn’t mean for this all to happen. Never, never.”

Once he starts talking about it, Billy can’t help the dam of two weeks of emotion from breaking.

His eyes fill heavily with tears. His jaw is tight. His increasingly broken breaths harshly disrupt the quiet. They watch him steadily fall apart into a mess of tears that he tries his best to keep quiet but ultimately fails.

Saya can’t take it anymore; she’s always had a soft spot for the punk. 

After Billy had gotten stitched up in Vegas, Saya had been exceptionally protective of him. Perhaps it was the fear of almost losing him, the upset of him getting hurt, the frustration of his further emotional turmoil.

Maria and Willie had switched spots with them halfway through the drive home so they could get some rest. They had slipped into the back and immediately Saya had pulled the boy to her. 

She had wrapped an arm around his shoulders, the other circling his head to tuck him safely against her. She rested her cheek against the shaved side of his head and whispered for some time something Marcus couldn’t hear but which made Billy cling to her jacket. 

She wraps her arms around him once again and it’s amazing how Billy fits so perfectly against her.

“This,” Saya says and she’s referring to everything they’ve been suffering through for the past two weeks, “this is not your fault, Billy.”

Billy sputters a sob. “It is-“

“No it isn’t,” Marcus says, his own voice cracking a little at seeing his friend like this. He can’t imagine the guilt he feels. “Don’t blame yourself.”

“But that’s not fucking true! Because the only reason all of you were in danger and are still in danger is because I wasn’t strong enough to kill my dad by myself.”

He’s nearly hysterical. Saya tries to shush him with a hand on his cheek and the quietest whisper of,  _ “Honey _ , _ ”  _ and she’s never called him that or anyone that and Marcus’ heart hurts the second she does because he understands that this time something is different, that something has changed after the Vegas trip.

“You’re allowed to need backup,” Willie says. “You weren’t in the wrong for asking us to be there.”

“Billy, you’re not responsible for what we do,” Marcus says. “We made our own decisions in Vegas and the consequences were not your fault.” 

“I just feel like I’m the reason we’re in this shit,” Billy murmurs. “I’m the reason Chico is dead.”

“ _ I’m _ the reason Chico is dead.”

Maria’s arms are crossed over her chest. There’s at least a foot between her and Saya but it seems so far. Her eyes shimmer with tears and she’s wiping one from her cheek the moment it falls.

“What’s wrong?” Lex asks and it doesn’t come off as sharp as it would usually; he’s genuinely curious. “Do you regret it?”

“And what?” Maria snaps. “I’m a bad person if I do?

“You’re not a bad person, Maria,” Marcus says.

“That’s not true.”

“You just wanted to be free of him,” Willie says. “He hurt you, Maria.”

“I don’t regret it,” she says, “but it’s more complicated than that. I don’t know why I feel this way. I shouldn’t feel this way.”

Billy’s still leaning heavily against Saya, her arms around him and her hand stroking his hair. He looks cautiously in Maria’s direction, a deep understanding reflected in his eyes. 

“I feel the same,” he says. “It’s so confusing. All I wanted to do was kill my dad. I expected myself to be so much happier after I did. But it didn’t happen that way.”

Maria wipes another tear from her face. Willie takes the opportunity to fish into the desk drawer by his arm and pass a tissue to her. 

“I don’t miss the bad shit,” Billy says. “I miss the good times. They were few, so few, but they were good.”

“Exactly,” Maria says and it’s like she’s so glad someone gets it but she hates that they do because no one deserves this bitter confusion. 

“You’re not alone,” Billy says. “Please remember that.”

Saya nods in agreement, says, “We care about you, Maria.”

Then Maria scoffs so viciously at Saya that they all look on, shocked. “You don’t care about me.”

“You think I don’t care about you?”

“You don’t act like it.”

There’s a beat of tense silence and then Saya explodes.

“I love you! And you know that!” Now Saya looks moments from tears. She shakes her head as she glares at the girl next to her. “How dare you say that I don’t care about you. You have been my best friend ever since I came to this school and for you to say I don’t care about you hurts like shit. I’m not a villain for wanting to make sure you take care of yourself, so don’t make me one.”

Billy hides his face in Saya’s shoulder as she speaks, most likely uncomfortable with the stern tone of her voice. Marcus’ first instinct is to comfort him but he doesn’t even try to reach for him when Saya is holding him to her so tightly.

“I hate that you’re hurting, Maria,” Saya says. “I fucking hate it. And I wish I could take it from you. But you’re the one who needs to take the step and reach out for help. And I don’t care if you’re upset with me or hate me or whatever you’re feeling- you can always reach out to me. You can reach out to all of us. You’re not alone, Maria.” Saya reaches out and wipes a tear from Maria’s face. Her voice breaks with emotion as she speaks. “I love you so much.”

And it seems so private but they’re all glad they’re here because Saya has just said everything that they feel for her. 

“I don’t hate you, Saya,” Maria says through tears. “I never could.”

Marcus finds himself breathing a small sigh of relief at seeing them reconcile. It hurt him to see how they left off but now that they’re leaning their heads together, he finds his heart warming.

Across from him, Willie isn’t faring as well.

He’s biting the inside of his cheek. His looking ahead with a million yard stare. Marcus can see the wheels turning in his head so he asks, “What’s on your mind?”

Willie doesn’t hesitate to speak, clearly ready to rid himself of the worries he’s kept to himself all this time. 

“I couldn’t shoot,” he says. “I had the gun in my hand. I had my finger on the trigger. I was going to shoot but I just-...I froze.”

Willie shakes his head in disappointment at himself, drops his head to look at the floor. 

“Willie,” Marcus says. “It’s not a bad thing that you couldn’t shoot. It’s fucking admirable that you didn’t.”

“‘Admirable’? Do you hear yourself, Arguello? Not pulling the trigger is a deathwish in a place like this.”

“Exactly!” Marcus chuckles sadly. “In a place like  _ this _ . This place isn’t real. It’s a fucking fiction of cliques and stupid shit that doesn’t matter. If you don’t fit in here, then good! Great! You’re better than most.” Marcus looks at his friend, expression soft but quietly desperate for him to understand. “You still have a heart. You still have a soul.”

After a beat of silence, Willie ends up looking at Marcus with a glimmer of something akin to hope in his eyes and he’s nodding, seeming a little relieved as the guilt of his inaction is lessened. 

But it’ll take more than simply one time of Marcus saying something to eradicate those fears he has. 

They know that this is the truth for all of their issues. 

Tonight is a starting point. Nothing will fix completely after this conversation but they know it will begin to heal. 

These things take time and effort.

“And what about you?” Saya says to the punk sitting on the desk. “What do you want to get off your chest?”

Lex sits up, shrugs. “Well, fuck. I don’t know. Feel like I’m playing catch up.”

“Sorry for not inviting you,” Billy says.

Lex smiles at him, something complex in his expression. 

“I’m not mad anymore. I was. Because it had me thinking that if you invited this wanker,” he points at Marcus, “that maybe I wasn’t as close to you all as I thought. Or maybe it was just payback for me being an asshole all the time. I shouldn’t complain. I deserved it. It’s not important.”

“You don’t ‘deserve’ anything shitty,” Marcus says.

“Oh but I do, love.”

“No, fuck off with that ‘woe is me’ bullshit. You weren’t left out. We didn’t consciously decide to not invite you. Everything was just going so fast.”

“We missed you, Lex,” Billy murmurs sleepily. 

“Especially Marcus,” Willie says with a smile.

“He asked for you a couple times while he was tripping,” Maria says as she runs her fingers run up and down Saya’s forearm.

Lex smirks mischievously at Marcus. “Did you, darling?”

“Never mind.” Marcus waves his hand in dismissal. “We purposely left you behind.”

Then they laugh together and it feels so good to be like this- human.

“I guess we all deal with that low self-esteem shit every now and then,” Lex says. “Overthinking. It’s stupid.”

“Your feelings are valid,” Saya says.

“But admittedly ill-timed.” Lex looks down at his lap. “I don’t do this talking about my feelings shit.”

“You’re doing fine,” Maria assures and Lex gives a small smile because he does feel a little better. 

Their eyelashes are all a little wet and their throats are a little scratchy but they’re all feeling lighter now that they’ve cleared the air. 

“So I lost my dad,” Billy says. “Maria lost her abuser. Marcus got beat and we all tripped hard. We’re messes.”

And then they all smile because yeah, they’re messes, but at least they’re messes together. 

They end up hanging out for another hour. They haven’t talked to each other in weeks so they take the time to catch up. They talk about their classes, latest assignments. They laugh when Willie admits that acid isn’t all that bad and he wouldn’t mind doing it again with them. Then they’re laughing again when Lex says they owe him a hit of acid.

Billy falls asleep somewhere along the way. Maria rests her head on Saya’s shoulder. Marcus and Lex play with each other’s fingers. 

When they start yawning, they decide to call it a night.

Willie gives the (awake) boys a firm handshake and hugs the girls tenderly. He leaves with a smile and a warm look in their direction. 

Maria murmurs something to Saya and seals it with a kiss just under her ear. Saya’s eyes flutter and she gives a hum of affirmation as Maria stands from the bed.

Lex blushes when Maria kisses his cheek and tells him good night. He waves stupidly after her. Marcus snickers as quietly to himself as he can but Lex hears him anyway, giving him an embarrassed scowl.

Maria comes up to him. Marcus stands from the bed. 

This whole thing scares him. He doesn’t know what’s going on with her but if Saya’s worried, he’s worried. But still, he knows they can get through it together. 

Marcus is kind of glad no one else in their group knows Spanish. His and Maria’s conversations remain private when they feel the need to, and Marcus feels the need right now as they hold each other.

“Maria,” Marcus whispers into her ear and she hums, her fingers tangling in the curls at the back of his head. “ _ Todo está bien; yo prometo. Y cuídate, por favor. Quiero que estés bien. Podemos ayudarte. Porque estamos aquí contigo. Siempre.” _

_ “Te quiero, cariño.” _

_ “Te quiero también. Muchísimo.” _

They part with a gentle smile and a squeeze of each other’s fingers before Maria leaves out into the hall.

Marcus turns to see Lex sliding from the desk with a stretch. 

“You’re leaving?”

“I’m staying with Petra tonight,” Lex says. 

“Shit,” Marcus murmurs at being reminded of the state of his friend. “How is she?”

“Getting better. Not feeling as painful, but popped a stitch or two, little bit of an infection. And she could be sleeping better, but that could be said for all of us.”

Lex was protective of their little group of Rats. 

He didn’t interject in little fights because he knew they could carry their own but when an altercation turned serious or triggered a deep reaction in one of them, his playful and careless demeanor shifted to the deepest instinct to keep them safe at all costs.

Of course he teased Petra, just as he teased everyone, but the night of detention when she was admitted to the infirmary, Lex had rushed out of bed, ran through the halls and pushed his way into the room, almost getting in fight with a nurse when they told him he needed to leave.

Lex was immovable, however, and stayed with her as they stitched up the deep gash in her shoulder, snarling at the unimpressed personnel whenever they made his close friend cry out in pain. 

Billy and Marcus showed up once Petra was stitched and settled and found the both of them sleeping, Lex curled up beside Petra on her hospital bed clutching her hand in his.

“She woke up sore today and decided to rest. I didn't want to worry her with all this nonsense. At least not right now.”

“Tell her I’ll see her tomorrow,” Marcus says. “I promise.”

Lex nods and pulls him in for a quick hug before leaving. 

Marcus sits back down on the bed and watches as Saya draws random patterns on the side of Billy’s head. He’s sleeping, looking comfortable and without the anxiety he possessed previously when initially talking to them.

Marcus leans over and momentarily rests his forehead against Billy’s shoulder, breathing him in and remembering him after so long apart.

He’s not surprised to see Saya looking at him warily when he sits back. She didn’t particularly like anyone getting too close on the rare occasions when she decided to dote on one of them, a (mostly) non-serious overprotectiveness radiating from her.

Marcus’ tired smile eases her. Her demeanor softens as she understands that the sleeping punk in her arms is not in any degree of danger with Marcus around. 

“Lex said you looked bad,” Saya says.

“Lex has a big mouth,” Marcus says, then, “I’m feeling better.” 

He rubs his hand in circles on Billy’s lower back soothingly, causing the punk to snuggle comfortably against Saya’s neck.

“Why are you mad at me?” Marcus murmurs.

Saya looks at him. “I’m not mad at you-“

“I feel like you are.”

She sighs.

“It might look that way and it might feel that way,” she says, “but I’m not. I’m just, processing things.”

“I trust you,” Marcus says sincerely.

“Good,” Saya says, then, “I’m sorry for worrying you.”

“Saya,” Marcus says. She looks at him. “You’re allowed to be vulnerable. I know it’s uncomfortable but it helps. If you ever need to talk or need help processing something, I’m here.”

Saya goes to say something but stops to genuinely smile. 

“Thank you,” she says and leaves it at that. 

It’s now past midnight and Saya looks hesitant to leave Billy but she can’t stay. She’s a legacy and legacies don’t hang around Rats all night. The rumors would be brutal, nearly dangerous.

“I’ll stay with him,” Marcus assures. “He can sleep with me.”

Saya hesitantly loosens her grip on him so Marcus can scoop him up. 

Marcus stands by the bed with Billy in his arms as Saya pulls the sheets back. He deposits him back in bed and they pull the sheets up. 

“Billy,” Saya whispers where she’s leaning over him, “I’m leaving. But Marcus is gonna stay with you.”

The punk nods, eyes closed and still mostly asleep. “‘Night, Saya.”

She strokes his cheek briefly before turning to Marcus. 

There’s no doubt in Marcus’ mind that she’ll be spending the night with Maria, probably hashing a little more out and being there for her completely.

Saya holds his face in her hand. She kisses his cheek, soft, lingering. Marcus’ eyes drift closed. 

“Goodnight,” she murmurs.

Marcus nods, leaning into her a little. 

The room is quiet except for Billy’s rhythmic breathing once everyone is gone. He thought he’d feel strangely about being in a mostly empty room but Marcus feels content about how it all went.

He leaves the chip bags and soda bottles to be thrown out tomorrow and instead turns off the lights and slips into bed beside Billy.

Immediately Billy turns and snuggles into the safety and warmth of Marcus’ chest. Marcus wraps his arms around him. 

“Marcus?” Marcus tightens his grip around him, humming into his hair. “Thank you.”

Marcus breathes a gentle laugh. “Thank  _ you _ for being brave enough to have us talk it all out tonight.”

He feels the most relaxed he has in a while. It’s like he’s shed the weight of all those unsaid words previously haunting him. Tonight’s just solidified to him that even through all this shit, they still care about each other.

Marcus holds Billy and pretends that he can keep him safe from all the dangers in the world, that he can keep all his friends safe. 

And he decides that at least for tonight, he can.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “Todo está bien; yo prometo. Y cuídate, por favor. Quiero que estés bien. Podemos ayudarte. Porque estamos aquí contigo. Siempre.” - Everything is okay; I promise. And take care of yourself, please. I want you to be okay. We can help you. Because we’re here with you. Always.
> 
> “Te quiero, cariño.” - I love you, darling.
> 
> “Te quiero también. Muchísimo.” - I love you too. So much.


End file.
